Heart To Heart
by bebobnidan
Summary: Molly can wait. Ryan visits Natalia in the locker room after her kidnapping, and helps her get over past demons. Its RaiNing. Spoilers for About Face.


**Hi all! I'm definitely continuing "Behind These Hazel Eyes" even though it hasn't gotten a whole lot of reviews, but I found this little one-shot bugging me. It's not quite as angst-oriented as my usual stuff, so this was a nice break. I think even non-RaiN fans will enjoy. It's either RaiN or just friendship, your choice. R&R!**

Heart To Heart

Horatio noticed Molly mouthing, "call me" to Ryan, and his expression softened. "Mr. Wolfe, if you have other plans, I'd hate to step on your toes."

"Thank you sir," Ryan smiled widely and followed Molly out of the lab.

As Molly and Ryan made it through the parking garage, a tiny thought tugged at the edge of Ryan's mind. Today he had barely spoken to Natalia, and he'd seen the mortified look on her face when she had returned from capturing their real murder suspect. Her kidnapping obviously took a huge emotional toll on her, and Ryan knew this was not the first time this year that her life had been put in danger- in fact, he counted three times recently where she had nearly been killed. Molly opened the passenger door of Ryan's Hummer and looked at him expectantly. "Are we going or what?"

"There's…something I need to take care of first," he stated.

"Should I just wait here?" Molly asked, confused.

"Ummm… why don't you come with me and you can finish up the evidence?"

"While you take care of whatever it is you have to do, right?"

Ryan nodded uncomfortably. Molly rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say Ry."

"Thanks," he gushed. Molly continued to talk as they exited the parking lot. He heard her words and nodded nonchalantly as if he were paying attention, but his thoughts kept drifting to the huge wound on Natalia's forehead, and her broken arm. Molly spoke as though she were telling a story, and he heard some mentions of her uncle who played poker and her aunt that was an alcoholic, but the words just floated through his mind with no weight to bring them to the ground.

"Funny, right?" Molly interrogated, turning to Ryan.

"Yeah, great story," he agreed.

"Ryan, I told you how when guys don't pay attention it leads girls, like my aunt, to become really angry. You're not hearing a word I'm saying. What's going on?"

"I'm just worried…about Natalia."

"Oh," Molly spoke, disappointed. She hid it well. "I hope she's alright."

"Me too," Ryan agreed. They stood awkwardly in the elevator, waiting.

"Is that what you have to check up on?" Molly asked after a painful pause.

"Yeah," he admitted, and Molly looked at the ground.

"Well I'll just take care of evidence and you can take your sweet time," she snapped as the elevator reached the correct floor. Molly stormed off and wiped the tears from her eyes. Ryan, in all his shame, did nothing to stop her as she ran to the evidence lockup.

Ryan turned towards the locker room and wandered in, looking for Natalia. He found her, sitting on a bench, flipping through an old photo album. He sat down next to her, inspecting the large bleeding scar on her forehead. Natalia looked at Ryan and laughed through bitter tears. "It's a photo album of me and Nick."

"Why are you looking at that now?" Ryan asked concernedly.

"The way… Clarkson spoke to me; it reminded me of how Nick spoke. He would tell me to think of something nice while he abused me… to calm down, or it wouldn't be fun for him. I felt so…used."

"Talia," Ryan whispered and stroked away her tears. "Don't do this."

"Do what, Ryan?" She snapped, turning to him. "Horatio said I should remember the good times, so that's why I took out this photo album. It reminded me that things were good at one point- because I started to think of him as the one thing in my life that's more fucked up than the rest of it."

Ryan sighed. "Do you want to talk."

"No Ryan, I don't really." Natalia spat back, wiping her eyes again.

"Okay," he conceded. "But I'm here if you need me." Ryan stood and started to walk out to go and get Molly to apologize. This had been a waste of his time, and he was instantly regretting the way he had treated Molly. He turned back for a second, and then opened the door to leave.

"I FEEL SO FUCKING STUPID!" Natalia screamed, and Ryan turned back to her. "I should've seen it coming, I should've taken my own advice and been more careful!"

"Natalia," Ryan insisted, "you couldn't have known Clarkson would do that."

"I'm not talking about Clarkson," she whispered.

Ryan sat back down, grabbing her hands and turning her to face him. "Nick is not your fault. Don't you ever dare think that. Don't think for a moment that you are to blame for the way that bastard treated you. Do you hear me?"

"I hear you," she laughed bitterly. "He just… he had all the control."

"Not anymore, sweetheart. Okay?"

"Okay."

"I have to go now. Call me if you need anything else, alright?" Ryan asked.

"I love you," Natalia whispered.

"What was that?" Ryan asked. _Had he really heard that?_

"I said thank you," Natalia lied. "For this."

"No problem. I love heart-to-hearts."

"Go have fun with Molly," Natalia laughed and turned to him, smiling. "I'll be okay."

**Did you like it? It's probably the end, but still review!**


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